Intro Paragraph (for readers)

Just when it felt like something was changing—like peace might be possible—the streets reminded me who I was. And what I was capable of.

This is the chapter where grief hit hardest. Where brotherhood turned into betrayal. Where everything I thought I was building got buried under rage.

Main Narrative: Ray’s Story (Lightly Edited)

I thought I was starting to see things differently.

That maybe there was more to life than colors, than enemies, than death. That maybe—even in this world—people from opposing sides could find something like peace.

But that dream died fast.

A close friend of mine—someone I loved like family—was killed. Shot down by members of the same gang that my new friend belonged to.

My world went black.

All the questions I’d started asking—What am I fighting for? Is there another way?—they disappeared.

All that mattered was the loss.
All that remained was rage.

And it didn’t matter that my new friend, the rival who had become like a brother, had nothing to do with the killing. In my eyes, his colors were the same as theirs.

So I betrayed him.

I turned my back on the only person who had shown me humanity outside my own circle. I iced him out. I cut him off. I killed the connection we had, even though a part of me knew he didn’t deserve it.

But when my friend died, something inside me died too.

I stopped caring. Again. I became cold. Again.

This time, the numbness went even deeper. Deeper than any cut, deeper than any bruise.

It’s wild how fast pain can erase progress.